Archive for February 2013

“America’s Science Idol” was a big success yesterday, unfolding to a packed room at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Boston.

While the competition was close, the judges ultimately chose a runner up–Jenna Jadin, who presented on sex in the insect and human worlds–and a winner, Tom DiLiberto, who talked about the difficulty but importance of predicting the weather, and ended with a hashtag–#weatherrespect–that perfectly summed up a well crafted presentation.

Here’s a picture of the winner with (from right to left) host Chris Mooney and judges Indre Viskontas and Corey Powell:

1. Rules: The six contestants will present on a scientific topic of their choosing, for no more than three minutes. This will be a hard time limit, and an alarm bell will go off at the end of the three minutes—after which they will be cut off if they try to continue.

We will be holding up 1 minute and 30 second signs to let the contestants know when they are nearing the end of the 3 minute time period.

Although it is not mandatory, contestants are strongly encouraged to give a visual/slide presentation to enhance their talk.

At the end of the 3 minute talk, each of the judges will offer brief commentary on the strengths and weaknesses of the performance. They will also record their evaluations, which will ultimately determine the winner.

2. Judging: The judges will evaluate each presentation based on three criteria: 1) clarity and effectiveness of message, 2) delivery (including quality of visuals), and 3) overall impact.

A little elaboration on the three criteria:

1) Clarity and Effectiveness of Message: This criterion involves whether the presenter is disciplined and clear in making one well-supported, central point in your presentation. Undisciplined, rambling presentations and data-dumps will be marked down.

2) Delivery/Quality of Visuals: This criterion involves stage presence, volubility, effective use of rhetorical techniques and turns of phrase, and also the quality of PowerPoint design. Poorly designed presentations will be marked down, as will presentations containing repeated disfluencies or visual distractions.

3) Overall Impact: How much the presentation affects and moves the audience, engaging listeners emotionally and/or making them want to take a particular action—or forcing them to think in a new way.

The final winner will be chosen based on the consensus of the three judges. All decisions of the judges are final. NSF, the judges and the moderator will not respond to any claims or inquiries regarding contest rules.

Our original call for contestants for “America’s Science Idol”–this coming Friday at the AAAS annual meeting in Boston–led to a large number of applications. It would have been nice if we could have had several rounds of competition, like in the real Idol–but for this event, that just wasn’t possible.

Gillian Bowser (@gwsn2012). A native of Brooklyn, Gillian is currently a research scientist at Colorado State University, where she leads interdisciplinary teams from multiple universities to do large‐scale network analyses of women in sustainability. Before that, she served for 11 years as a wildlife biologist at Yellowstone National Park studying insects, bison, and rodents. She has also worked on desert tortoises, habitat modeling, and military overflight issues; and has worked in the director’s office of the National Park Service in Washington, D.C.

Gillian’s career represents a nexus between art and science. She started her career as an art major attending LaGuardia High School of the Arts, and has had several art shows and one solo ceramic sculpture exhibition.

Tom Di Liberto (@TDiLiberto). Born and raised on Long Island, Tom has been fascinated by the weather since he was a young child. Currently, he’s a meteorologist at the Climate Prediction Center at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, forecasting the weather for Africa, Central America, Hispaniola, and Central Asia with a focus on weather hazards that could affect food security. In addition, Tom conducts research on the use of satellite-derived rainfall estimates in these regions. Read the rest of this entry »